Education

Meet Tarana Burke, the woman who founded the #MeToo movement

“Me Too’ movement is gaining momentum in India with each passing day as the women are finally speaking about sexual harassment in public.

As several Bollywood celebrities and journalists like Vinta Nanda and Tanushree Dutta accused actors like Alok Nath and Nana Patekar of sexual harassment, let’s know who was actually behind this revolution in the history.

‘Me Too’ movement was founded in 2006 by Tarana Burke to help survivors of sexual violence, particularly young women of colour from low wealth communities, find pathways to healing.

The initial idea behind me too was empowerment through empathy, letting other women know that they’re not alone in the journey.

About Tarana Burke

Tarana Burke is a 45-year-old African-American civil rights activist from New York.

Burke is the senior director of girls for gender equity in Brooklyn, which strives to help young women of color increase their overall development through various programs and classes.

In 2017, she made it to the ‘Time person of the year’ among other activists.

How was the #MeToo started?

Tarana Burke originally coined the phrase me too on ‘my space’ while working at Just Be Inc., a nonprofit company that was founded by her in 2003.

She started a project focusing on the overall well-being of young women of colour.

The life-changing movement began when Burke was talking to a girl who revealed that her mother’s boyfriend had been sexually abusing her.

She didn’t know what to say, she just said ‘me too’.

Burke was left searching for the right words to help empathise with the countless women and young girls who have disclosed their experiences to her.

Burke has shared the message with survivors everywhere: You’re not alone. This happened to me too.

She was able to create a storm with just 500 Twitter followers.

The movement became an internet sensation when actress Alyssa Milano stumbled upon this phrase and tweeted this.

Subsequently, her tweet was investigated and caught millions of eyes.

According to an interview given to CNN, Tarana Burke considers this as a movement and not a viral campaign.

Although the historic movement started around 12 years ago, it became famous only two years ago. Now, it is being used by women across the globe to share their anguish against sexual harassment.